BRM Reviews NJPW G1 Climax 23: Day 1

[Big Red Machine]

NJPW G1 Climax 23 Day 1 (8/1/2013)- Hamamatsu, Japan

BLOCK B: Toru Yano vs. Kota Ibushi- 5.25/10
Yano hit Ibushi with a couple of chairshots which the referee just ignored. Yano got some heat then Kota made a comeback with his usual array of high-flying and flips.

BLOCK A: Tomohiro Ishii vs. Lance Archer- 6.25/10
Archer has over a foot in height and at least fifty pounds on Ishii, and they played off of this a lot in the beginning, with Hoyt completely dominating and barely selling any of Ishii’s offense, but they did it in a way that made it feel like a huge deal when Ishii hit Hoyt hard enough that he started selling it.

BLOCK B: Shelton Benjamin vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan- 4.75/10
Shelton worked over Tenzan’s neck. Tenzan barely got any offense in.

BLOCK A: Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Katsuyori Shibata- 6.75/10
You know, Shibata’s really good when he isn’t no-selling everything… which is, unfortunately, most of the time. This wasn’t one of those times, though, and these two put on a very good match.

BLOCK B: Tetsuya Naito vs. Yujiro Takahashi-6/10

BLOCK B: Minoru Suzuki vs. Yuji Nagata- 7/10

BLOCK A: Togi Makabe vs. Hirooki Goto- 6.25/10

BLOCK B: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Karl Anderson- 7/10

BLOCK A: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Satoshi Kojima- 7.5/10
Kojima worked over Tanahashi’s neck. Tanahashi sold it well.

BLOCK A: Kazuchika Okada vs. Prince Devitt (w/Bad Luck Fale)- 7.5/10
Disappointing, considering the talent involved. I am astounded that they only got thirteen minutes.

A pretty good show from New Japan. A fine start to a long tournament, but nothing worth going out of your way to see.